USG discusses ranked-choice voting proposal


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Senate members watch a presenter discuss a slideshow projected onscreen.
David Martinez, the parliamentary secretary, said during Tuesday’s Senate meeting that there is a possibility for each candidate to get 20% of the votes. The result would be that 80% of student voters would not have a USG president they voted for, he said. (Anik Panja | Daily Trojan)

The Undergraduate Student Government discussed a proposal to change the voting procedure to rank choice voting, an alternative voting system, for the upcoming presidential election during its Senate meeting Tuesday night. David Martinez, the parliamentary secretary, said the upcoming election will have five candidates — the most candidates USG has seen for this election in eleven years which creates a potential problem in voting outcomes.

Under the current system of plurality voting, Martinez said, there is a possibility for each candidate to get 20% of the votes. The result would be that 80% of student voters would not have a USG president they voted for, he said. 

“For the last 11 years, 71% of the time when we have more than two candidates, we do not reach a majority of the vote,” Martinez said. “This election with five candidates has the potential to have smaller than 50% of the vote share for the winner.”

The Senate will vote on the proposal to use ranked-choice voting during next week’s meeting.

Senator Sam Habibi presented projects he is working on, including the A+ Project and bringing back the Freshman Forgiveness Program, which allowed freshmen to have a pass/no pass option for their classes. 

Habibi also announced the RestSC project which he has been working on with senator Sanjana Sambhwani and Middle Eastern and North African Student Association advocacy liaison Eduard Ghazaryan. The project aims to create a commuter hub for students at USC so they can have a place to rest or take a nap before having to drive back to their homes. 

“The goal here is to implement at least a few sleeping pods on our campus even if we can’t find a centralized location for all of them,” Habibi said. 

Habibi also introduced an upcoming project, USG Remind, which will send text messages to those who sign up about USG events. The goal is to increase attendance for and promote USG events.

Christian Shaw was newly appointed as the new assistant director of the Philanthropy Fund. The Senate unanimously approved this appointment.

“I can’t think of a more qualified person for this job,” Habibi said.